Published by Constable & Robinson, 18 April 2013.
ISBN: 978-1-7803-3567-4
Staincliffe has become famous for the televised version of
her Scott and Bailey novels. In the Blink
of an Eye is not in that series, it is a stand-a-lone and a very different
style. The book opens when Alex and Naomi are at a family barbeque celebrating
Alex’s new job. On the way home they run down and kill a nine year old
child. Alex suffers broken bones and
Naomi is left with amnesia and fighting for her life. Although unconscious when
she arrived at hospital, Naomi was tested and found to have been driving way
over the legal alcohol limit. And here starts the nightmare. She is shunned by
everyone, including her own sister, who has a young son and sees the situation
through the eyes of the bereaved mother. Naomi’s life becomes unbearable. Her
mother’s life too, is entangled in the nightmare.
But this book is
much more than a straight forward case of the manslaughter of a young child and
its effect on the families and people close to both the victim and the driver.
The end of the book took me completely by surprise rather like a wall coming
down on the fast lane of the M25, or someone running out in front of your own
car. I really didn’t see it coming.
Staincliffe knows
how to crawl inside a character’s mind and spill out her story. A slice of
realism, but a cracking good read.
------
Reviewer: Linda Regan
Cath Staincliffe
was brought up in Bradford and hoped to become
an entomologist (insects) then a trapeze artist before settling on acting at
the age of eight. She graduated from Birmingham
University with a Drama and Theatre
Arts degree and moved to work as a community artist in Manchester where she now lives with her
family. Looking for Trouble, published in 1994, launched private eye
Sal, a single parent struggling to juggle work and home, onto Manchester’s mean streets. It was short
listed for the Crime Writers Association’s John Creasey best first novel award,
serialised on BBC Radio 4, Woman’s Hour and awarded Le Masque de l’Année in France.
Cath has published a further seven Sal Kilkenny mysteries. Cath is also a
scriptwriter, creator of ITV’s hit police series, Blue Murder,
which ran for five series from 2003 – 2009 starring Caroline Quentin as DCI
Janine Lewis. Cath writes for radio and created the Legacy drama
series which features a chalk-and-cheese, brother and sister duo of heir
hunters whose searches take them into the past lives of families torn apart by
events.
Trio, a stand-alone novel,
moved away from crime to explore adoption and growing up in the 1960s.
Cath’s own story, of tracing and being re-united with her Irish birth family
and her seven brothers and sisters, featured in the television documentary Finding
Cath from RTE.
Split Second, Cath’s
latest novel in her stand-alone series about ethical dilemmas, explores the
question of whether to intervene or not when violence erupts in a public place
– and what the consequences might be. Dead To Me, a prequel to the
popular Scott & Bailey TV show, sees the two women detectives
thrown together for the very first time as they investigate the brutal murder
of a teenage girl.
Cath is a founder member of Murder
Squad, a virtual collective of northern crime writers. She is an avid
reader and likes hill-walking, messing about in the garden and dancing (with
far more enthusiasm than grace).
www.cathstaincliffe.co.uk
Linda Regan is the author of
six police procedural crime novels. She is also an actress. She holds a Masters
degree in critical writing and journalism, and writes a regular column,
including book reviews, for three magazines. She also presents the
book-club spot on BBC Radio Kent. She is an avid reader, and
welcomes the chance to read new writers
www.lindareganonline.co.uk
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